The New Frontier Wiki:Journal/Lurkers
The following research is a full front-to-back examination of the . History Goblins, critters, and lurkers The Lurkers were conceived by Charles Zembillas, a concept artist commissioned by Naughty Dog to work on "Project Y", what would later become Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. Through January—December 2000, Zembillas would create a full 603 pages of conceptual designs for the project "to both establish the look of the characters and provide the in-house staff with a springboard of ideas for their own input", and "developing a unique look that would work within the technological parameters of the game."Zembillas 2003, index Zembillas' work would be gradually refined, as a design philosophy was established for the project. Zembillas was first instructed to "draw goblins", with no particular stylistic direction.Zembillas 2003, set 01, slide 1A He created the goblins as a cohesive group, being "some sort of magical creatures that can conjure spells" (fig. 0.0).Zembillas 2003, set 01, slide 1B While the goblins eventually diverged into the foundations for the main character,Zembillas 2003, set 02, slide 13 the earlier concepts would later be evoked in the final designs for the Lurkers. On January 20, 2001, Zembillas created the Critters: "various menacing creatures which would inhabit the areas the main characters would explore", who wore objects that contained a "certain power" the Critters would control.Zembillas 2003, set 03, slide 27A These objects were in fact a bulky collar (fig 0.1), which would later become a key trait of the Lurkers. The Critters developed into the basic foundations for the Lurkers. They had a relationship between each creature that would "manifest itself in a design element common from one character to the next",Zembillas 2003, set 03, slide 29A though at that point the design element had not yet been established. The earliest experiment was with a certain flourish body marking pattern,Zembillas 2003, set 03, slide 29B which would be one of a few traits common to almost all Lurkers. February 8 marked the coinage of the term "Lurker", a race of beings "not to be confused with Critters", but that were similar to them in some yet-to-be established way. The first drawing of a Lurker bore resemblance to the Critters via the body markings (fig. 0.2),Zembillas 2003, set 05, slide 52A but otherwise, the Critters had a closer resemblance to the final Lurkers than the newly conceived "Lurkers". By February 17, Naughty Dog had settled on the aforementioned design element, which was "a strange bottom lip shape". Zembillas disliked this approach, but continued developing the Critters using the lip shape (fig. 0.3),Zembillas 2003, set 06, slide 66B which would become the signature trait of all Lurkers in the final design. After a month and a half of Zembillas' development, Naughty Dog began giving him concept sketches that refined the Critters' design philosophy. These illustrations were done by employee Mark Koerner,The chronological placement of Zembillas' and Koerner's work is determined by the development of the latter's design thusfar, and the subsequent developments of the former's. and reflected almost all of the final design traits possessed by the Lurkers, including spurs along the lower jawline, bright yellow eyes, and flourish body markings (figs. 0.4–0.9).Koerner Zembillas would continue to develop the Critters based on this direction.Zembillas 2003, set 06, slide 67A Zembillas / Koerner comparison By April 30, the designs for the Critters and Lurkers merged into the new Lurkers, of what would eventually become the final Lurkers. One of the first representations of this was the merging of "second-level" Critters with a "Worker" class of Lurkers. This also introduced the concepts of the Lurkers being enslaved, with multiple chains used to convey this visually (fig. 1.0).Zembillas 2003, set 12, slide 200 Bulky metal braces would later become a pervasive element among the Lurkers in The Precursor Legacy; as such, it can be concluded from this that the reason is their enslavement. This design element seems to also have its roots in the power-harnessing collars from the earlier Goblin design (fig 0.1). Evil sister and brother * Start here https://www.theanimationacademy.com/603/13.htm Final concepts * Start here https://www.theanimationacademy.com/603/21.htm * https://www.theanimationacademy.com/603/23.htm (sandworm, python; start comparing with Rafei's work) * https://www.theanimationacademy.com/603/30.htm klaww (end of zembillas' involvement, start showing Rafei's stuff) Lore Origin Invasion Post-Gol and Maia, Haven City Migration to the Brink Aeropan oppression, Far Drop Characteristics Biology and physical traits Technology and advancements Culture and architecture Notes Annotations Citations References Games Websites Bibliography